What are you reading this week of February 4, 2018?

[hermetic]

I am reading Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood and it is fabulous. Granted, I am a huge Atwood fan plus I love theatre and Shakespeare so this was bound to become a quick favorite for me. I am actually thrilled to be reading it, though.

What books are thrilling you this week?

Hope all your bowls are super today.

[DemoTex]

1. A history made 50 years ago this month: "Hue 1968"

It was 50 years ago, on January 31, 1968, at 02:30 am, that the Tet Offensive started. The beginning of the end, some call it. But the fighting dragged on for another deadly five years, thanks mainly to Nixon and Kissinger (IMO), and their non-existent 1968 "plan" to end the war. I am currently reading Mark Bowden's, "Hue 1968."

[SonofDonald]

6. Looks like a great one

By the author of "Black Hawk Down"

[hermetic]

11. Were you there?

I could have been, had I been a guy. I sure remember it.

[DemoTex]

17. I was not in Vietnam in 1968 ..

.. but I was there in 1970-71.

[alfredo]

2. I finished Hagseed, loved it. Now

Now I am reading “Heretics” by Leonardo Padura. Next on my list is “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” by Arundhati Roy.

Another Atwood book I recommend is “The Robber Bride.” Enjoyed it. The “Oryx and Crake” trilogy was very entertaining.

[hermetic]

7. Hi Alfredo

I have read her trilogy but The Robber Bride has somehow escaped my notice. I will definitely have to look for that one, thanks.

Your other selections sound great, as well. Heretics being called "A sweeping novel of art theft, anti-Semitism, contemporary Cuba, and crime." And Arundhati Roy is such a great storyteller, that one is bound to be great.

[alfredo]

21. Check out Orhan Pamuk

Take a look at this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccustomed_Earth

Sarah Vowell brings history alive. Her “Assassination Vacation”is a wonderful start when building a Sarah Vowell library. One book explores the Trail of Tears, I think it is “Take The Canolli.”

https://www.amazon.com/Hullabaloo-Guava-Orchard-Kiran-Desai/dp/0802144500/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517780434&sr=8-1&keywords=hullabaloo+in+the+guava+orchard

[redstateblues]

3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson

[hermetic]

9. I really enjoyed that one

Lots of good advice.

[TexasProgresive]

4. I like that, "No 2 persons ever read the same book."

I finished The Poet by Michael Connelly. It was very good but I didn't get the fright that Stephen King wrote about in his forward. Maybe it's because I was looking for it. Any way I'm reading The Narrows which is a Bosch with Agent Rachel Waller. It is a sequel to The Poet.

[hermetic]

10. Yeah, me too

Sure, sometimes 2 people will get much of the same thing from a book, but there will always be your own personal history informing everything you read. I find it a fascinating thing to contemplate.

Keep us apprised on that next book.

[getting old in mke]

37. Jack McAvoy

Plays occasional roles in Bosch books (and maybe the Lincoln Lawyer books - too many Connelly stories in the same version of LA).

[TexasProgresive]

38. I dont think Jack is in this one.

I like the way Connelly weaves his stories in the same world. I bet he eats handfuls of Cheerios out of the box and drives a Lincoln towncar.

[SonofDonald]

5. "Project Azorian" by Norman Polmar

"Dragons Teeth" by Michael Crichton

[hermetic]

12. Interesting

Project Azorian was a CIA project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974.

And Dragons Teeth, just published, is "Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton classic."

Enjoy.

[SonofDonald]

18. I've always been fascinated by the project

I read a first hand account of it by a crew member around 40 years ago in a paperback, can't remember the title, also an account of the submarine Halibuts search for the K-129.

I just recieved the video produced by PBS of the recovery also, some more books are red star rogue, blind mans bluff, the silent war by John P Craven and other sources.

In the book about project Azorian is a chapter about what seems to be the actual cause of the 129's sinking, not theory's of what it was doing and why it was where they found it but what actually sank it.

And I loves me some Chrichton, finding a new one was like it was my birthday a month early.

I'm a voracious reader, it'll take two days to get through "Dragons Teeth", cause of the Super Bowl you know....

[cloudbase]

8. Playing With Fire

by Lawrence O'Donnell

The 1968 election and the transformation of American politics.

[hermetic]

13. That one

is getting read a lot recently by DUers.

[cloudbase]

14. I'm reading it for a course at school.

Since my retirement, I've been taking a class or two each semester at the local college. This one is a history course for the fiftieth anniversary of 1968. Our other book is 1968: The Year That Rocked the World.

I'm trying to keep my brain from turning into oatmeal. So far, so good.

[hermetic]

15. Wonderful!

Good for you. I retired a few years ago and have given some thought to taking online classes. I manage to stay pretty busy, though, so haven't yet found the time. It may be too late for me to avoid the oatmeal thing now.

[SonofDonald]

19. Next on my list. N/T

[Number9Dream]

16. "Origin" by Dan Brown

Another hard to put down story by Dan Brown. I couldn't wait to get to the answers to the two questions posed by a primary character. The ending was good, and thought provoking. If you like Dan Brown even a little bit, check this one out.

[hermetic]

22. Oh, neat

My local thrift store is going out of business and had a half price sale so I bought a bunch of books. Origin was one. Someone here mentioned it a month or so ago so it was on my radar. <That there is my radar

[murielm99]

20. The Eye of the Sibyl by

Philip K. Dick. This is an anthology of his early short stories.

I used to comb the old sections of libraries to find his stuff. Years ago, I asked for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" People went, "Huh?" I interlibrary loaned it and never got it. Then they made the movie "Blade Runner."

I am going to look for some of the books mentioned in this tread. Thanks, everyone!

[hermetic]

23. We do find some good stuff, huh?

I luv me some PKD and "Blade Runner." I have always wanted to read Valis but haven't been able to locate it yet.

[murielm99]

25. The Valis trilogy is available

on Amazon. I have never read it.

[SonofDonald]

29. I read it before the movie came out

He sure was a great writer, after all there are a lot of movies based on his work.

Funny thing is Ridley Scott said many years later during an interview that yes, Deckard was a replicant.

Not in the book he wasn't, and in the film Blade Runner 2049 it sure looks that that twist was not included.

If you ever get a chance read some sci-fi penned by Frederick ( Frederic ?)Brown, seems to be hard to find but I read a collection of his short story's a couple decades back that was amazing, a very under appreciated author these days.

[murielm99]

31. I own some of Brown's work.

When he died, his wife got a few things back into print. My first husband had some old, tattered paperback that included his short, short stories. That is how I got to know him.

I don't run into many people who appreciate Brown, or even know a thing about him.

[murielm99]

32. Also, try Zenna Henderson.

She is another one who needs to be more appreciated. Some of her work has recently come back into print. I bought several of her books for my son-in-law for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Find her stories about "The People."

Henderson, too, I found in a pile of old, tattered paperbacks that my first husband owned. He died in 1975. He certainly knew how to find good, if obscure, science fiction authors.

He did not own any P. K. Dick, or Theodore Sturgeon. I had to locate those on my own.

[SonofDonald]

33. Thank you, cool, I'll give her a try

I love finding those little gems you never knew existed.

It's most likely that same short story collection by Brown I was talking about, time to search for it.

[SonofDonald]

34. Look up author Jeff Long

Start with "The Descent", you'll be searching for his other novels right after that.

[northoftheborder]

24. Dark Money, by Jane Mayer

About a year or two old, but hadn't read it. Interesting details about this country's wealthiest men, their childhoods, family life, etc. and then, over decades, how they managed to literally take over the GOP and almost the entire country. I knew the essential facts about them, but the deep research that went into this book is fascinating and frightening.

[hermetic]

27. Frightening, for sure

So, which is it? The money or the power, that makes men completely lose any sense decency that they may have been born with? Oh, I know: impossible to nail down.

[shenmue]

26. "Trump is F*cking Crazy," Keith Olbermann

[hermetic]

28. That's a REAL book!

I thought you were kidding, but it's for real. "Witty, acerbic, hard-hitting, and timely." Now, how can we get that into all the schools?

[shenmue]

30. :)

[avebury]

35. Not fiction but still a great read,

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. I had heard that she had a reputation as a script doctor and she definitely is a good writer.

[hermetic]

41. She was so amazing

That book is based on diaries she kept while filming the original Star Wars trilogy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I have no doubt it is quite interesting.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

36. Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

It's a young adult/historical fiction book about the story of Arn Chorn-Pond in the Killing Fields. I'm a little torn. The story is very compelling and horrifying, and the characters are well developed. That she chose to write it in broken English gives me a mixed reaction.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

39. Now on to Watchmen by Alan Moore

Never Fall Down went pretty quickly. Still have the one hang up with the broken English. I think I could handle it more if it had improved at the end as he started living in the US.

Anyway, rereading Watchmen (been a LONG time) due to the Doomsday mini-series they are doing at DC. This is one of my favorite comic book runs and, after only one comic book of the 12 being read, it really does hold up. Alan Moore is such a fantastic writer. This and V for Vendetta mean two of his are in my top 5.

[hermetic]

40. Oh yeah

Two of my favorites, too. Hope the mini-series comes out well.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

43. It's two comics in and it's pretty awesome...BUT

DC artists are behind, so no the comics will only come out every two months. So what started as a one-year endeavor is not at least two. That's a long time to hold people's interest.

[BlueDog22]

42. Pandora's Box by Wesley Brian Williams

I read Pandora's Box by Wesley Brian Williams. It is a scifi novel and his only publication.

[hermetic]

46. Thanks for listing the author

.It is amazing how many books can share the same title. As an example this one, for which I found 8 different books.
"Pandora's Box is a facility that imprisons a group of sub-humans known only as Residents. Each Resident is engineered with mysterious and horrifying power..." This sounds quite creepy and wonderfully frightening. I will add it to my list.

[japple]

44. Hi everyone! Sending out valentines to everyone this week. I have finally

finished Hans Falluda's book, Every Man Dies Alone, which has taken me many weeks to complete. It is 500+ pages, which is much longer than what I normally read, but it is well worth the time spent. So many scenes mirror those of our current "situation" that I nearly got sick and, though the ending isn't pretty, it was expected. Hans Falluda is an awesome writer and I would encourage others to seek out his work. It's a bit dated, but so is history!

Thanks, hermetic, for keeping us together every week. Big hearts to you

[hermetic]

47. Big hearts back to you, my dear

I daresay, doing this helps me maintain a bit of sanity, and happiness.

I will read that one someday. I can get it digitally through my library.